


we live in an age where everything is staged

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: the odds were never in our favor [11]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Character Study, Family Feels, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Propaganda, Rebellion, Weddings, but still there, but then Allison demanded her own whole side scene, in the past, mostly - Freeform, post-Quell, the hargreeves siblings are all victors of past hunger games, this was originally going to be meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 01:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Allison has learned a lot from her years as a mentor. How to lie, how to create spectacle, how to deceive and trick and gloss over and stretch any good thing you could get your fingers on.Most of all, she learned how to create a symbol.There are many reasons why Klaus and Dave were chosen by not just her, but also Heavensbee and Five, to become new symbols, to be held up in hope. Because they are good symbols of kindness, because Finnick wants to give Annie privacy, because Katniss is already a symbol of her own in the Mockingjay.Most of all, though, it's because of a reason Allison points out: District 8 was the first District to rebel, and thus they should be the first to reap the rewards. They should be the first District to glimpse a happy ending, to see what you can win if you rebel.It's a symbol. If you rebel, you gain something. You gain happiness. You gain hope.To be a mentor, to be a propagandist, is to know that there is symbolism in everything. You just have to find the best one, the one that will affect the most people, and let it wreak its effects.(Allison's three reasons for choosing Klaus for the wedding.)





	we live in an age where everything is staged

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Woke the Fuck Up" by Jon Bellion.
> 
>  
> 
> Okay, okay, I know I said I was done, but in my defense this started off as a chapter of the "Meta" explanation, but it ended up working a lot better as being directly from Allison's POV. Therefore, it was moved to the main section of the story.

_Throw roses into the abyss and say:_

_"here is my thanks to the monster who didn't succeed in swallowing me alive."_

**-Friedrich Nietzsche**

 

Allison has worked in the Capitol as a mentor for years, now. She knows how to create a piece of propaganda, how to turn any moment into a symbol, into a spectacle to successfully suade people's opinions.

She’s never had a successful tribute, yes. That’s right. And that’s why she’ll always have a shred of doubt when making plans, because she hasn’t seen them borne fruit yet.

But of the the Victors still standing, she’s had the most success. She’s had her tributes go the farthest, make it closest to the win the most number of times. She’s gotten closer and closer to the win every year, bearing the couple of fluke years such as Five’s.

She’s learned from her own mistakes, and beyond that, she’s watched the Victors who have succeeded and catalogued the reasons why they have. Annie was a fluke. Five won because he specifically manipulated the audience and the other tributes into thinking he wasn’t a threat. Klaus won because he managed to survive.

How their stylists treated them before the Games began played into some of their successes and not others. It helped out Katniss and Vanya immensely, giving them sponsorships that got them through the worst of times. How mentors twisted their stories during the Games did major help as well, as with Five and Allison herself.

Allison has learned a lot from her years as a mentor. How to lie, how to create spectacle, how to deceive and trick and gloss over and stretch any good thing you could get your fingers on.

Most of all, she learned how to create a symbol.

There are many reasons why Klaus and Dave were chosen by not just her, but also Heavensbee and Five, to become new symbols, to be held up in hope. Because they are good symbols of kindness, because Finnick wants to give Annie privacy, because Katniss is already a symbol of her own in the Mockingjay.

Most of all, though, it's because of a reason Allison points out: District 8 was the first District to rebel, and thus they should be the first to reap the rewards. They should be the first District to glimpse a happy ending, to see what you can win if you rebel.

It's a symbol. If you rebel, you gain something. You gain happiness. You gain hope.

To be a mentor, to be a propagandist, is to know that there is symbolism in everything. You just have to find the best one, the one that will affect the most people, and let it wreak its effects.

-

But if Allison’s being honest with herself, it’s not just because of symbolism and District 8. It's for a more selfish reason than that.

Allison knows Klaus better than she does Katniss or Finnick. She thinks she knows him better than she knows any other Victor. To be honest, she thinks she knows him better than she does anyone else in this world.

And she loves him. Klaus, her little brother of sorts. Her only ally in the Capitol in the dark months between Games and Victory Tours, when they were the only people save the occasional visits from the rest of their fellow Victors.

She knows what he’s suffered. And yes, she knows- distantly- that Finnick suffered the same thing they did, but it’s not the same. There were no shared drinking nights with Finnick. There were no games of cards where they traded tips on how to best make your way through the worst clients, how to survive with your mind intact. Finnick wasn’t there for Claire’s birth, didn’t witness Allison’s lowest moment- Klaus was. Klaus did.

Allison was there after Dave died, when Klaus threw himself back into the beds of the Capitolites and back into drugs in order to survive the Capitol again. She saw Klaus at his lowest moment, just like he did for her. She saw what losing Dave did to him, and she knows just how much it means to get Dave back.

In the end, all of the symbolism and show business means a lot, yes. But giving her best friend in the world happiness, giving him the love that was denied him for years- that means more than anything she thinks she could say.

-

Dancing at Klaus’ wedding brings Allison a sense of joy she’s only ever felt when reuniting with Claire here in District 13.

The wedding, as executed according to her, Five, and Heavensbee’s plans, simultaneously performs a number of functions. It blasts a major propaganda blow in the gut of the Capitol and delivers a massive boost to the Rebellion. It gives her best friend happiness.

And, at Allison’s most selfish, it sends a fuck-you to President Hargreeves.

Allison’s a mentor, yes. She’s a Victor and a Killer. But her secondary job in the Capitol, her “talent” she picked up because every Victor had to have one- well, that was designing clothes. She helped her District’s stylists for the past few years with the clothing aspects of their designs.

President Hargreeves will know who designed the clothing that the grooms are wearing. He will know whose stylistic fingerprints are all over the plain but rich clothing that the Victors- displayed in the front row of the pews, easily seen by the cameras- are wearing. He will know which Victor played the heaviest hand in striking this blow to him.

And maybe this isn’t a stab wound or a killing blow with a knife, like she was trained growing up. But at the end of the day, it will do far more damage to President Hargreeves, his reputation, and his beloved Capitol than Allison ever could have done with one of her beloved knives.

-

As the wedding happens, riots occur in every District across Panem. District 2, the last District left loyal to the Capitol, rises to join the Rebellion.

Allison will learn this, later. She will smile in grim pride, will know that the names of the rebels currently falling are on her shoulders. She will know that she has done her duty, that she has crafted her talents finally not to the endless Games and the after-Arena, but rather to a cause of her own desire.

But for now, she knows none of this for certain. What she knows is the satisfaction in her chest as she watches Dave and Klaus dance, as the future remains nothing but the second Game she  _knows_ she has finally won.

For years, she has known loss like a family member that just won't leave. She has known loss beyond words, had her daughter torn from her and watched her tributes die.

Tonight, as she dances with her daughter, as she watches the cameras bob and weave through the crowd, she knows no loss. She only knows the sweet taste of victory, untainted by the sourness of confirmed deaths to come.


End file.
